I was excited to see Parekh yesterday too, but I think the coaches are going to manage him the same way they managed Wolf last year. They shielded Wolf from the tougher teams and put Vladar in the "scheduled losses" or back-to-backs, etc. until they felt he looked ready for prime time and the pressure that comes with it. I think this might be why he was sat for the first two road games and likely starts on Saturday (bottom pairing in the best situation as possible against opponents' bottom lines and on the PP). They'll evaluate after every game and take things slow with him. I'm expecting him to be a healthy scratch often this year on the road and see limited ice time in games he gets into based on the situation and how he's going in the game. They're going to put him in situations where they think he's the least overmatched and slowly move him up in level of difficulty if Parekh shows progress. We saw it work very well with Wolf, where they went slow and then eventually gave him the reins and I'm guessing they'll do the same with Parekh with similar success. It'll be frustrating to listen to people constantly complain about giving him more ice, but it'll likely work out way better than throwing him into the top 4 consistently or all situations without much regard of match ups or situations for an 19 year old defenceman and how that impacts a player long term if things don't go so well.
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